Splurge, Save & Toss

Biggest splurge as everyone venue, food and alcohol package all in one price.
Saved on flowers and planner since I am always organized and make lists to ensure everything is set.
Tossed out the engagement party, planner and transportation since they were not going to be taken into the budget.

View quoted message I will be in search for artists who can do that! I am so on board with this!!!

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The cupcakes look like flowers and were made like a bouquet. Absolutely amazing!!

View quoted message CUPCAKE 👏🏻 CENTERPIECES 👏🏻
That is so unique!!! You are geniuses!!! I might want to steal that idea!! 🙈

Like you, we 'splurged' on food and drink, and we also splurged on our honeymoon. We saved money with my fiancee & her sister doing invitations (they are scrapbooking experts), on flowers (silk flowers from Amazon), cupcake centerpieces (saves on both centerpieces and a wedding cake is not required), most of our decorating (buying our own decorations and doing the setup).

View quoted message We may end up going out for lunch or something but there won’t be any wild parties on a bus or going out town

View quoted message I won’t have a bach too! 😅

Splurging: food and photographer.
Saving: flowers, invites, centrepieces
Cancelled: videographer, garter, shower, bachelorette

View quoted message The spluuurge! FOOD! Of course!


The save on the dress! I am jealous! 🙈
And the toss!!! We did the same! Doing both the ceremony and reception dinner at a restaurant and not getting a DJ cause we won’t have dancing. We’re inviting mostly family and they love chit chatting while drinking and just spending time together!

Splurge: Food, fully open bar, Italian and West Indian families coming together, we need good food and good drinks. Photographer, the pictures are one of the most important parts of the day to me.

Save: center pieces from Ikea & Michaels that we are doing ourselves, we rented all our signs instead of buying them which also helps so we aren't left with a bunch of stuff we wont use again. Making and printing our own seating chart. Saved on my dress, the sample was the only one of its kind and happened to be my size so the store gave me a discount since I was taking the sample. It had barely been tried on, was a new dress and it was a fluke that they couldnt find it in their system when it came time to buy.

Toss: Traditional reception, we are having it at a nice restaurant instead, we saved a lot of $$ doing this and are getting an amazing menu. DJ, since we're at a restaurant we scrapped dancing almost entirely and instead are inviting guests to join us at the casino after dinner. Tossed the garter/flower toss as well, the garter thing is creepy and I'm paying too much for flowers to chuck em lol

View quoted message Saaaaame! My friend also offered to collect the photos we like into a slideshow video with a song we like so it kinda works! 🤪

View quoted message I think by the time we quoted some videographers I couldn’t justify the amount of money spent on receiving a 2 minute video! We ended up finding a photographer who is doing unlimited photos for the whole day! Going to use that to our advantage and get
Hundreds of photos

View quoted message Ooh! We tossed the videographer too! How did you decide on tossing the videographer? 😊

We “splurged” on the food and venue! We’re “saving” on the florals and DIY centrepieces and we “tossed” a videographer and wedding cake ( cupcake table instead)

View quoted message Yeah! We have flowers, candles and our table numbers.

View quoted message Wait! The lazy susan on each table sounds so practical! Are you putting the decor on it? 😊

Splurge: venue, photographer and videographer.


Save: cake. Just bought a simple cutting cake and then using the dessert buffet our venue automatically includes with our fees.
Jewelry, everything is borrowed or created.
Table centers. Lots of DIY including resin lazy Susan's on each table.
Toss: bouquet and garden toss. So cringy imo.

View quoted message Splurging on wine for favors is actually a good idea because WHO DOESN’T LIKE WINE?! 🤣 I’m pretty sure your guests will take that home! I know I will! 🤣


Tossing the garter/bouquet toss as well! 🎉

Splurge: probably the photography (need those photos!) and wedding favours (custom bottles of wine for everyone), and no regrets about that at all - even if people don't take them, I'll happily take them home.

Save: using only fake flowers, creating the invitations myself, keeping our wedding small (under 50) and got a screaming deal on our cake.

Toss: I think we got pretty much everything that's traditional, but decided against the garter/bouquet toss. Also FH is driving us away in his stepdad's car, so no transportation needed!

View quoted message Wow! I 💯 am with you on splurging on food!


AND OMG the rehearsal dinner idea is so smart!!! It’s a great alternative for a venue that has capacity restrictions but still making people you love feel appreciated!
I love your idea of tossing the traditional wedding cake too! It’s a good balance between still having cake but not having to pay for an elaborate one!

Splurged....
We are inviting everyone that isn't invited to the wedding to our rehearsal party so they don't feel left out and we stick to venue limitations

My dress... wasn't intending to but it was so beautiful!!
Food... going with the upper level options and late night snacks
Music... still figuring out who but it's super important to us
Saved...Venue.. we were so surprised at how affordable it is and it's a waterfront resort! Also they provide the food so the space was less.
Photographer.. we got a great deal so although we feel like we splurged we really didn't have to
Transportation.. a friend who is licensed to transport people is helping us out
Marriage Commissioner... she'll take care of a simple private ceremony for the legalities right before our fun ceremony where our friend will perform it
Flowers.. my sister owns a flower shop so getting at wholesale
Favors... one per couple instead of everyone getting one
Tossed...
The traditional wedding cake..just making a singled layer with pretty flowers to cut..the venue is providing various desserts with the meal
Boutonniers... just a nice picket square.
Typical invitations and RSVP.. website will take care of all our needs
Wedding planner/Day of coordinator... we are having a very reliable niece and her friend take care of this.

I'm sure there is more...lol..as we continue to plan things are about to change!!

View quoted message No problem!

View quoted message Got it! I’m gonna discuss this with my partner! Thank you for the tips! 🥰

View quoted message Oh wow! Yeah! 😱 I love that it can also double as home decor too!

View quoted message The venue we picked caters as well so we are doing a dessert table with fruit trays and various 1 serving desserts / dessert squares. Decided to forego the cake as we aren't big dessert people and I can't eat cake anyway. Lol it's a lot of money for something that we would probably end up throwing away 50 to 75 % of.

View quoted message I bought my centerpieces for $10/each so with stuff I added I might have paid $15/each. The decorating place started at $40/each so even if I don't sell them I'm already ahead

View quoted message Omg tossed the wedding cake as well! Now I’m reaaaally thinking about doing this. Did you serve desserts or had a dessert table? 😊

View quoted message That’s nice! I am here for reselling for that item to live and beautify another wedding! 😍

View quoted message Omg love this detailed list!!!! 😍


I love that you got to get your dream dress AND dream job!!! You’re amazing!

Also, I’m now thinking of ditching the invites now! 👀 Also, the cake! I love that your creativity also helped you save on other elements! 😍

Splurged on food and cocktail hour.
Saved on just about everything else so far
Tossed wedding favors and wedding cake.

View quoted message I have all of them still. Not sure what I'll do with them. Once I have photos from photographer I'll put some stuff on marketplace to sell. Maybe I'll sell them as well if anyone wants them...maybe sell the plain ones to someone who wants to paint them... I'll keep my bouquet I think.

Our splurges:

• - Venue with tons of food and upgraded open bar: So beyond worth it in every way - Food and drink is so important to guest happiness, which was a propriety for us
• - Photography: This is the top thing I always say to splurge on, if you can - My photos make me feel like we’re in a magazine
• - My dress: I was laid off in January from a decade plus job and told myself if I could find a new job in a certain amount of time, my reward would be my dream dress. And now I also have my dream job!

Saves:

• - I’m a graphic designer so I was able to save a ton of money designing everything myself and having things printed cost-effectively. I even did a work exchange for all our signage in exchange for branding!
• - Sent digital invites and used a wedding website to collect RSVPs: stamps are expensive! (And even the most cost-effective printing adds up)
• - Shoes: I’m sooo glad I resisted the urge to splurge here - even though my heels were insanely comfortable, by 9pm I wanted them off and put on sparkly sneakers, then slides
• - We had a Friday wedding a couple of days before the busy season officially started which saved us a bunch and allowed us to upgrade our food and drinks
• - Built our elaborate seating chart with my husband’s stepdad’s help - It would have cost us sooo much to rent something like it! (If it even exists anywhere)
• - Bought most of our decor for better quality and prices than renting - I’m pretty savvy with a sale

Tossed:

• - Tossed favours and reallocated funds to buying scarves (on massive sale) and rescue flats for guests: Our guests LOVED these
• - We didn’t do a cake and no one missed it at all
• - We didn’t have any fancy transportation since everything was at one venue